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MONTREAL—The newest leader of Quebec’s sovereignty movement launched a years-long bid to win power playing up not the independence card closest to his heart, but the one that has preoccupied the province — the economy.

Parti Québécois Leader Pierre Karl Péladeau accepted the mandate from party members last Friday night saying his job now is to win Quebec’s separation from Canada. But he led his party into the national assembly talking about jobs, economic growth and other, more concrete concerns amid news of job losses and business closures.

The strategy is aimed at highlighting Péladeau’s background as a captain of industry, having taken over the Quebecor media empire founded by his father, at a time when Quebecers are grumbling about the painful budget cuts that have reduced services and funding in the education and health sectors while raising fees in the province’s cherished daycare system.

“The great majority of Quebecers are aware of my expertise, of my background and I intend to put a lot of emphasis on the economic and industrial development of Quebec,” Péladeau said ahead of Tuesday’s legislative session.

The PQ was buoyed by a Leger opinion poll showing the party was profiting from a post-leadership bounce that would have seen it win more votes than the Liberals had an election been held last weekend. Survey respondents also found that Péladeau would make the best premier.

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Unfortunately for the PQ the next election is not until 2018.

Premier Philippe Couillard predicted Tuesday that the issues most important for Quebec’s success and economic health will be sacrificed in the next election to the PQ’s desire for independence, which he said was “an imaginary solution to an imaginary problem.”

“The priority of Mr. Péladeau is not the economy, it’s the sovereignty of Quebec and you cannot do both. Right now the last thing we need is uncertainty to attract private investment,” he said.

Legault, a former PQ minister who soured on sovereignty, said he has little confidence in Péladeau’s chances of turning Quebecers back on to the idea of independence.

“I don’t think he’s going to succeed where René Lévesque or Lucien Bouchard could not,” he said, referring to the two men who piloted the pro-independence movement through the failed referendums of 1980 and 1995.

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